LOS ANGELES — American actor Paul Sorvino, best known for his role in the gangster classic Goodfellas and father of actress Mira Sorvino, has died at the age of 83, his family announced Monday.
“I am completely devastated. The love of my life and the most wonderful man who ever lived has passed away. I am heartbroken,” his widow, Dee Dee Sorvino, wrote on her Facebook page.
Paul Sorvino was born in New York in April 1939 and is best known for his role as Paul Cicero in Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese and released in 1990 alongside Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta.
The following year, he excelled in the television series Law and Order, playing a policeman. In 1995, he played the role of Henry Kissinger in Oliver Stone’s film Nixon.
“My father, the great Paul Sorvino, has passed away,” his daughter Mira Sorvino, who won an Oscar for her role in Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite in 1996, tweeted.
“My heart is torn – a life of love, joy and wisdom with him is over,” she said.
Paul Sorvino played a wide range of supporting roles in films and television series, but was a versatile artist with a particular love for sculpture and opera.
“Most people think I’m either a gangster or a cop or something, but the reality is I’m a sculptor, a painter, a best-selling author, many, many things – a poet, an opera singer, but none of them is gangster, but, you know, obviously I sort of have a knack for playing these things,” he said in a 2014 interview in the Orlando Weekly.
- Editor / additional report by AFP
